Is James Murdoch the Mystery Owner of a $23 Million Town House?

Photo via Google Maps.Earlier this week, The New York Observer reported that Jesse Angelo, 37-year-old editor of Rupert Murdoch’s iPad-only newspaper, The Daily, signed his name on the deed for a double-wide Upper East Side townhouse. The home, which once belonged to Muppets creator Jim Henson, sold for $23 million to a mysterious L.L.C. based out of the News Corp building.

The Observer was skeptical that the relatively young and unmarried Angelo purchased the town house for himself, and suggested that the L.L.C. was created to mask the identity of the true owner. “Does Mr. Angelo really have that kind of money, or could the home be for one of his News Corp. cubicle mates?” the pink paper’s Matt Chaban asked. Today’s news that James Murdoch, son of Rupert, will move from London to New York to serve as News Corp’s deputy chief operating officer certainly hints at the latter suggestion. The younger Murdoch and Angelo have been best friends since Harvard.